


A Spirit In Words

by Dragonsigma



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Character Study, Gen, short things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-26
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-19 13:57:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/574006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonsigma/pseuds/Dragonsigma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short reflections on aspects or events in various characters' lives. A little bit of supplementing canon ideas, but not a lot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Toph

She could see a lot more than her parents would ever know. Not just in the physical world, but in the philosophical. These strongmen who called themselves earthbenders knew nothing of the earth. They didn't know how every motion reverberated though the ground, how you could strike without seeing. How every action must be in balance with the rock or fail. But then they seemed to miss a lot of things, distracted as they were by sight. She didn't need it to see how ignorant they were.


	2. Mai

She'd had enough of this princess, this demon who ruled with fear and lightning. None of it made her feel any better, any more accepted. How would it ever help her, assisting someone would destroy her love? No, it was time to follow her heart and not her fear, the well-intentioned Prince instead of this monster who seemed to seek nothing but power.


	3. Zuko

Was there any hope for him, alone and hunted on all sides? He'd questioned his destiny a dozen times over. He'd betrayed the only man who ever believed in him. And now his only chance for, if not redemption, a way to do some good, lay in the hands of the group he had persecuted over three continents. No, he didn't dare hope for redemption. Only that the Avatar might allow him to help right his family's wrongs.


	4. Iroh

He'd seen the face of the man who had killed his son, seen the steadfast Earth mentality crumble into terror when he'd called flame to his hands and raised his arm to strike, and he'd seen that fear change to astonishment when he'd turned away and ordered his men to release the soldier. For the General had remembered balance, and the proper way of firebending, and through his anger and his grief had seen that what he had intended to do, and what he had been doing for years, was not anything akin to balance.


	5. Roku

It's his fault, and he knows it. He doesn't need Kuruk's look of disappointment to tell him that. He doesn't need Kyoshi's scorn. It would never have been that easy, he tries to protest, before the guilt and the stares drive him to silence. It is too late to say anything. Any words that could have changed the course of history will be useless now.  
He longs to solve this problem, to be free of a failed Avatar's cursed afterlife of restless wandering. And he wonders if that is selfish. But it is not time yet, he cannot yet find the lost Air Avatar, and so he roams the world of the spirits, seeking the souls of the dead from Air, Water, and Earth lands, begging forgiveness from each for the horrors he allowed his friend to commit. 


	6. Katara

Was this really the highest form of waterbending, this torture and corruption? She had used her bending to heal, so different from forcing her will on a person's body. She had fought with waterbending, but nothing like this dark art that felt so wrong. The old woman had been taken away in chains, still laughing at her victory. Would she end up the same way, evil and twisted and using her power for nothing but harm?


	7. Aang

All four elements before the end of the summer. A daunting task. And if he failed... he couldn't even imagine what would happen. No, he knew exactly what would happen. He had seen it, the desolation and death and burned relics of a world that had long since forgotten peace. He couldn't fail. And he wasn't going to. But how?


	8. Sokka

He wasn't useless. Sure, maybe he couldn't manipulate elements like the rest of the team, but who really needed that? He kept their spirits up with jokes, and he could fight just as well as any of them. All you needed was a boomerang and a sword, and the skill to hit the target. He wasn't useless. He was going to help save the world.


End file.
